Towns

fraud

A disbarred Edgartown attorney has been indicted on federal tax and bank fraud violations. John C. McBride, 64, has been charged with allegedly recording or attempting to record false tax lien releases on properties including his Edgartown home.

Mr. McBride, who lives in Edgartown and Braintree, was indicted June 26 on one charge of endeavoring to obstruct and impede the due administration of the Internal Revenue laws and one charge of bank fraud.

A sophisticated phone fraud scheme which targeted large numbers of Vineyard residents last week, seeking access to their bank details, appears to have fooled very few people and netted little for the perpetrators, Island banks reported this week.

The phone calls, which began on Thursday night, purported to be from local banks, informing customers their bank cards had been suspended. The computer-generated voice on the line asked them to press one to be transferred to the security department, so the card could be re-activated.

An Edgartown man has been charged for the second time in the last month with illegally practicing law and taking money from a client.

John C. McBride, 62, was arraigned last Friday in Edgartown district court on charges of larceny over $250, removed attorney practicing law and unauthorized practice of law. Not guilty pleas were entered and a pretrial hearing was set for Nov. 21.

A disbarred Edgartown attorney has been charged with unlawfully practicing law and taking thousands of dollars from an accident victim who hired him to perform legal services.

John C. McBride, 62, was arraigned last week on charges stemming from his alleged legal representation of David Silva, 48, also of Edgartown, who suffered injuries in a May bicycling accident and sought damages from the town.

Facing two separate lawsuits alleging he misused funds, Edgartown attorney Edward W. (Peter) Vincent Jr. has had his bank accounts frozen and liens totalling $700,000 attached to his South Water street residence and other assets.

The cases also have prompted complaints alleging misconduct by Mr. Vincent to the state body that oversees lawyers, which is investigating, and to the Edgartown police department, which has opened an investigation into whether there is cause for criminal charges.